Monday

Feb 4, 2019 at 3:11 PM

Holy Cross students packed the hallway outside the office of President Rev. Philip Boroughs Monday morning, armed with a message: create more transparency around the issue of sexual violence and misconduct at the private Catholic college.

Some 250 or more students and faculty were expected to take part in a sit-in at Fenwick Hall. It was planned as an-day demonstration. Well over 100 were observed inside the building by 10 a.m. According to one of the organizers, senior Mia Yee, as many as 340 people turned out to the event at one point during the day. Students were expected to sit inside Fenwick until 8 p.m.

Students at the demonstration expressed frustration and dissatisfaction with how Holy Cross handles investigations into and student concerns about sexual harassment, rape and other issues they say are taking place at the school.

“I believe Holy Cross has become misguided and no longer stands up for what it’s preaching and what it’s teaching, in some ways, as a Catholic institution and an institution dedicated to teaching students,” Holy Cross senior and Organ Scholar Lorraine Mihaliak, said.

Organist and artist-in-residence James David Christie resigned from his post last year amid allegations from past Organ Scholars of sexual misconduct.

Student organizers on Monday delivered a letter of demands to Boroughs, who made a brief appearance outside his office to assure students his administration was listening and was taking their concerns seriously.

The letter included four specific demands, two of which were tied to a former Holy Cross dean, Christopher Dustin, who recently was placed on administrative leave. A third demand called for “an external audit by an impartial third party of the Title IX office, its practices and officers and the College’s policy surrounding sexual harassment and faculty misconduct.” Another demand requested a preliminary report of independent counsel Philip Catanzano detailing a timeline of his investigation by March 1, along with a promise that findings of the investigation will be made publicly available “to the fullest legal extent upon its completion.”

Relating to Dustin, one of the demands sought “a full acknowledgment” from Boroughs that for the 20 months Dustin was under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct, the college failed to alert students, faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees as well as an acknowledgment that Dustin should not have been allowed to continue to interact with students.

The second demand concerning Dustin called for Holy Cross to “terminate their professional relationship” with him pending completion of an ongoing investigation. The demand also called for Dustin to be stripped of a Distinguished Teaching Award he received in 2004.

Stepping out into the hallway from his office, Boroughs spoke briefly and directly to students, but did not address their specific demands.

“We all agree these are critical issues for us at Holy Cross,” Borough said. “We want to work together with you to find resolutions for them. Some of the issues are complicated in various ways. We want to look into the implications.”

Boroughs said he would share the letter with members of the school’s executive team “so we can frame a response for you.”

In a statement released later Monday morning, a Holy Cross spokesperson said, “We want our students to make their voices heard, and we appreciate that this issue is a serious one. Fr. Boroughs has already expressed to the students his willingness to meet with them and have this important conversation, so the students to make clear their concerns and we can continue to work together on solutions.”

Boroughs and Holy Cross Dean of Students Michele Murray met later Monday with some of the students involved in the demonstration. Another meeting was agreed upon for Tuesday.

Yee said the administration agreed to two of the demands submitted by students, and said she was planning to attend a meeting after the sit-in Monday night to discuss the day's events.

Some of the organizers of Monday’s demonstration, which they said was not coordinated by one specific group, cited Dustin and the reporting of Worcester Magazine, which first broke the story of a former student’s allegations that he acted inappropriately toward her. By the time the story was published, Dustin had taken a sabbatical, according to the school. Worcester Magazine subsequently reported Dustin was placed on administrative leave. On Thursday, this newspaper published a story regarding perceived issues with the Title IX process of handling student complaints, which was also raised at Monday’s demonstration.

Holy Cross sophomore Christopher Hornbuckle, who said he works in an educator group at the school, said he has worked firsthand with some victims.

“I’ve seen sort of the process of the Title IX office and I’ve seen people unable to be supported the way they need to be,” Hornbuckle said. “When I hear someone say it’s easier to see their attacker graduate than it is to receive support, that affects [me].”

The sit-in featured readings and statements from some students and faculty, and many students sitting in the hallway and in other rooms in the building were carrying signs. One student strummed a guitar.

Holy Cross professors Ellen Lokos and Helen Freear-Papeo performed a dramatic monologue that saw them walk up and down the hall. Lokos at some points stopped and spoke directly to men in the hallway, including a campus police officer.

“How could you not do it?” Lokos said when asked what prompted her to show her support of students at the sit-in. Asked whether the issue was personal for her, she said, “It’s all personal For anyone who’s living it should be personal. These are my students. I care about them. I love them.”

One Holy Cross senior said the demonstration was to bring attention to the published instances involving Dustin and Christie as well as others.

“We are here to do a peaceful protest,” the student said, “a demonstration to express our disappointment with the way the administration has handled several cases of faculty misconduct and a general culture of silence around the campus. We thought the best way to do so was to sit outside the president’s office and let him know ourselves.”

Some of the issues concerning sexual mistreatment of students have occurred off-campus, according to some students, who said the school was slow to respond to those matters. As they aired their grievances, however, students made sure to say how much they enjoyed attending Holy Cross.

“We both love Holy Cross, we’re very active on a lot of clubs and we’re very engaged on campus,” senior Izzi Lambracht said of herself and fellow senior Caroline O’Connor. “We couldn’t have chosen a better school, but we’re very disheartened to hear about injustices that students are facing with their professors. We’re disheartened by the lack of transparency and by all the stories that have come out about Title IX.”

O’Connor said the two are part of a subcommittee at the school called Holy Cross Against Sexual Violence. They referenced an Instagram account, called Sexual Assault on the Hill, that emerged last year and helped lead to a campus-wide discussion about sexual violence.

“I think it happens on a lot of college campuses,” O’Connor said. “Nothing’s ever happened to me. I feel safe here, but it affects me that other students don’t feel safe here.”

“My biggest issue,” she said, “is the lack of transparency, that we were blindsided by this issue. I think more warning, more information disseminated to the faculty and student body would be appropriate by all.”